


The Truth Comes Out

by Covert_dragon97



Series: The Wolf and the Trickster [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Backstory, Drinking, Friendship, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-25 23:07:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16207583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Covert_dragon97/pseuds/Covert_dragon97
Summary: One-shot! What happens with Rose Tyler and her fellow Avengers a few weeks after the events of the Battle of New York.





	The Truth Comes Out

_ Week 2 _

**Slap! Pop! Whack!**

“Woah there, Rose, that was a hard one! Working out some anger?” Steve’s warm chocolate eyes study my face closely as he shakes his hand from the hit.

I wipe the beads of sweat off my forehead with my wrist, keeping my fighting stance. “Nah, nothing like that. Just kinda tired.”

“Yeah, I know,” he interrupts, giving me a small encouraging smirk and holding up his gloved hands to spar again. “It gets a little better, with time.”

“I wish I could believe that. But I don’t sleep, at least not anymore; every time I close my eyes, my dreams haunt me to where I’m more exhausted than before I’d tried to sleep.”

Steve drops his hands at my statement. “Rose, if you need to talk about it…”

“No,” I cut him off. “We’ve been over this. I don’t talk about me.” Not wanting to argue the same subject again, I drop my stance and start unwrapping my hands. “Thanks for training with me, Steve. I’ll try to see you again before you head out.” And with that, I turn and walk out of the training room, leaving a frowning Captain America behind.

  
  


_ Week 3 _

“So, Rose…” Tony Stark begins, ready to ask the question I’ve been expecting all week.

“Yeah Tony?” I try to keep my tone naive, like I have no idea what he’s been dying to know. Most of the other Avengers had started going their separate ways: Clint Barton was off to a S.H.I.E.L.D. base in Texas, and Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov to Washington D.C. Mickey had only stayed a few days after the Battle of New York before heading back home to London. All that remained were the two geniuses - Tony Stark and Bruce Banner. 

We had gone out for drinks tonight. With Stark Tower under construction, the three of us were spending a lot of time together each evening getting away from the noise. Tony sets his drink down and looks at me intently. “How long are you going to be staying in New York? Not that I’m trying to get rid of you, but with the rest of the team going their separate ways, I was curious what you were planning.”

Not the question I was expecting. “I, uh…” I let out a nervous laugh. “Well, that’s a complicated question. I’m, uh, kinda stalling to go back home.”

“Decided you like seeing the sun everyday?”

I roll my eyes at Tony’s comment as Bruce pipes up, “Is this because you’re scared to tell your family you got stabbed through the chest by an alien nutcase and didn’t die? Or because you turn into a human glow stick?”

I stare at him with wide eyes for a moment before taking a large gulp of my drink. “Someone gets to the point,” I mutter. “But, yeah, that’s basically why.”

“Rose, we want to help, but you have to talk to us.”

I look at them both and let out a sigh. “Believe it or not, talking won’t save me this time.”

“Save you? What the hell are you talking about?” Tony leans back in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. “Rose, we’ve been patient. We’ve tried being nice to get you to tell us what the hell is going on with you. You promised to tell us, and we still know squat. If you’re going to be part of this team, it’s time to start earning our trust.”

“He’s right, Rose. Whatever’s going on with you, we can’t help if we don’t know,” Bruce says calmly, resting a gentle hand over mine. “I turn into a giant green rage monster, and Tony is...well, he’s Tony. We won’t judge.”

I down the rest of my drink for a little liquid courage. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I did promise to tell you, and you deserve to know the truth. I’ve just been afraid, ‘cause I know you won’t look at me the same way once I do.”

“So is that a yes?” Tony leans forward with a slight grin.

“Where should I start?” I ask, motioning to the bartender to bring me another drink.

“The beginning is usually a good place, I should think,” Bruce urges.

The bartender sets another drink down in front of me and winks. I roll my eyes,  _ a flirting man is what got me into this mess to begin with! Granted, I don’t regret it at all…” _

“Um, Earth to Rose? You still with us?” Tony interrupts my thoughts, bringing me back to the present.

“Yeah, sorry. So, you want me to start at the beginning? I’ll warn you, it’s not a short story. It all started when I was 19, maybe eight years or so ago, I’m not really sure…”

“Wait,” Tony interrupts, “You don’t know how many years it’s been? It’s simple math, Rose! Just subtract from how old you are now!”

An unintentional blush rises to my cheeks. “Can’t really do that if I’m not sure how old I am. Now are you going to keep interrupting, or let me get this all out?” 

Tony opens his mouth to respond before closing it quickly. “Okay, then,” I continue, once again taking another large gulp of my drink. “As I said, it all started back in my home in London, where I lived in an estate flat with my mum and had a completely ordinary life, with an ordinary job at Harrods department store, and an ordinary boyfriend. Nothing exciting ever happened to me, until one day, when the shop dummies tried to kill me in the basement.”

Bruce and Tony both stare at me like I’m nuts, confusing growing on their faces the more I talk. I ignore them and continue, knowing I’ll never have the guts to finish if I stop now. “That’s when I met him, the fantastic man who grabbed my hand that day and told me to run. And we did, we ran and we ran. Until the worst day of my life, when I got pulled through the Void, the empty neverending darkness between worlds, and ended up here. My mum came through too, and so did Mickey.”

“So where are you from then? Are you an alien?” Bruce asks hesitantly.

“I’m from London, just not the London you know. And I was born to two human parents, just like you were. You should know by now that there are thousands of other planets and races out there, and other worlds beyond this one. Asgard is just one, but there are other versions of Earth, too. I come from an Earth without superheroes, where Pete Tyler died in a car accident when his daughter was just a baby.” I gaze intently at a melting ice cube in my glass. “A world where I looked into the heart of the Time Vortex, and became something more than human.”

“What exactly does that mean?” Bruce questions.

“There’s a sort of...symbiote living inside of me, that makes me glow, and stuff,” I reply slowly. “I’m kind of the Protector of Time,” I mumble into my drink.

A familiar grin crosses Tony’s face. “Sorry, what was that, Protector of Time?”

“Oh shut up,  _ Iron Man _ ,” I reply sarcastically. “You all get cool nicknames, don’t mock me for having titles.” My eyes widen in shock when I realize I had said titles, plural.

“Titles?” Tony enunciates the  _ s _ at the end. “Might I ask what other titles you have?”

I take another drink, feeling a slight buzz lightening my mood. “Um, Defender of Earth? But in my defense, I didn’t just come up with them, they were given to me. Only one I can up with was Bad Wolf, and that was mostly just the Time Vortex talking.”

They both just stare at me quizzically for a moment, before smiles erupt on both their faces. It felt amazing to finally tell them the truth, to truly be part of a team again.

I’d wait til tomorrow to tell them I could barely control it, and that I could be putting everyone at risk if I didn’t learn soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Some of you may have noticed that I have removed the other two parts of this series. But that doesn't mean they're gone for good! I'm just rewriting them! In the mean time, I hope this one-shot helped fill the gap.


End file.
